Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Watercolor Exploration

For the second week of art class, we focused on liquid watercolors. We began with an oil pastel/watercolor resist technique where the combination of an oil pastel drawing and watercolor painting creates a resist effect. The oil pastel resists the watercolor and shows through the painting!
The 2s classes practiced making marks and drawing shapes. Then painted over their drawing with liquid watercolors.

Of course glitter was involved and some children chose items from the shelf to incorporate into their paintings.
We also practiced more fine motor skills by using droppers to suck up the paint and drop it onto coffee filters. This type of paper soaks up the watercolor to make an interesting tie-die effect.
Finally, the 2s classes, had a super sensory exploration with white foam paint (which feels like shaving cream, but is non-toxic), watercolors, and fun tools!

For the drawing portion of the 3s/4s classes, we focused on self-portraits. Each child was given a hand mirror to study their faces before using oil pastels to try to draw themselves.

After a fun attempt at self-portraits, the kids began to explore the watercolors with droppers, toy cars, and glitter.
After class, the kids continued the fun outside- playing at the water table and spraying liquid watercolors onto a large drop cloth.

The evolving garden at GROW also proved to be a source of non-stop entertainment. The chickens and bunny were enticing the younger ones, while the older boys were engaged in some hard work... filling up a wheelbarrow with logs and straw! 

5 comments:

  1. Fantastico también este espacio!!!! me encanta todo lo que hacéis, ya lo sabes.
    Un abrazo desde España.

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  2. Thanks for your comments! Gracias Marta- un abrazo at ti tambien!

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  3. I absolutely love what you are doing and so wish there was an art teacher like you in my area! How do you get a 2 year old to not mix all the paint into brown/black?!!!

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    1. Thanks Dena. My trick to avoiding the brown paint in the beginning of class is to give the young toddlers only two primary colors. Later on in class they end up with more colors and eventually mix them into brown!

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